Cards

TSB Classic Plus customers can now earn up to £60 cashback a year on spending, on top of the 5% interest they can already earn on balances of up to £2,000. But is the deal any good? MoneySavingExpert.com evaluates.

Shoppers can buy goods costing up to £30 using contactless credit and debit cards from today, as the single payment limit has increased from £20 per transaction.

Credit cards have a dirty name due to debt, but used right they're free financial armour. If you're buying something costing £100+, put just 1p of it on a card to get huge extra protection. This has just paid off for long-time MoneySaver Scott Parsley, for paying £300 of a £26,000 car on a credit card got him £10,000 back once he discovered it was faulty.

Virgin Money's best-buy 0% for debt shifts, new spending and money transfers (cash loans) now has a £50 freebie too and there are ways to manipulate it so you don't need to spend big to get it. But hurry, the deal ends at 23.59 on Thursday.

Virgin Money has boosted its credit card range today, launching a limited-time offer for customers taking out new cards to get a free case of wine worth £50.

About two million existing and former Affinion – often branded Sentinel – customers are set to get a refund for mis-sold card protection after a redress scheme was today given the green light.

American Express (Amex) customers who currently have, or have had, its My Essentials and Back on Track policies with additional card protection in the past, will be refunded the premiums paid for the worthless add-on cover. 

Update August 2016: This news story was written in May 2015, though we've done further analysis on the Mastercard and Visa rates since then, and the logic is still the same – Mastercard still usually comes out the winner. We will do a full update of this article soon...